25 dec 2012
JLAC warns against the establishment of a waste dump in Issawiya
The Jerusalem Legal Aid and Human Rights Center (JLAC) issued on Monday a statement in which it warned against the Israeli decision to establish a waste dump in Issawiya, where the center has published a Map scheme detailing the Israeli new project that will affect the people of Issawiya, Shuafat and Anata.
The statement said that the Jerusalem municipally project aimed to establish landfill solid waste on the territory of Shuafat, Issawiya, and Anata.
Ghalib Nashashibi, coordinator of the center's programs in Jerusalem, said that the stated objective of the scheme is to establish a landfill for solid waste and building waste, adding that one of the project's items there is a clear signal that liquid waste will be buried in the site, without specifying the nature of the liquid waste.
Nashashibi also noted that the Israeli project is a sensitive and serious issue, adding that the center is currently working in collaboration with experts and specialists to make an objection to this scheme especially that it may affect the health of Palestinian residents in this area as it is possible to affect the groundwater.
The statement said that the Jerusalem municipally project aimed to establish landfill solid waste on the territory of Shuafat, Issawiya, and Anata.
Ghalib Nashashibi, coordinator of the center's programs in Jerusalem, said that the stated objective of the scheme is to establish a landfill for solid waste and building waste, adding that one of the project's items there is a clear signal that liquid waste will be buried in the site, without specifying the nature of the liquid waste.
Nashashibi also noted that the Israeli project is a sensitive and serious issue, adding that the center is currently working in collaboration with experts and specialists to make an objection to this scheme especially that it may affect the health of Palestinian residents in this area as it is possible to affect the groundwater.
17 dec 2012
IOF soldiers comb western Jenin in search of water wells
Israeli occupation forces (IOF) combed the plain of Marj Bin Amer to the west of Jenin district searching for water wells dug by Palestinian farmers to irrigate their cultivated land.
Local sources said that IOF soldiers mounting armored vehicles stormed the plain with maps in their possession and started combing the region after taking photos of it.
They said that the soldiers interrogated a number of farmers in areas west of three Jenin villages about how they irrigate their farms.
The sources noted that the soldiers took shots of a number of those water wells and warned farmers that many of them would be demolished soon.
They said that the soldiers set up a roadblock, during the campaign, on the Jenin-Haifa road and searched passing Palestinian vehicles.
Local sources said that IOF soldiers mounting armored vehicles stormed the plain with maps in their possession and started combing the region after taking photos of it.
They said that the soldiers interrogated a number of farmers in areas west of three Jenin villages about how they irrigate their farms.
The sources noted that the soldiers took shots of a number of those water wells and warned farmers that many of them would be demolished soon.
They said that the soldiers set up a roadblock, during the campaign, on the Jenin-Haifa road and searched passing Palestinian vehicles.
27 nov 2012
World Bank to fund Gaza water services rehabilitation
The World Bank approved on Tuesday a $6.4 million grant to improve and expand coverage of water and sewage services in the Gaza Strip, the financial institution said.
In a statement, the World Bank said the board of directors approved the plan for the Gaza Water Supply and Sewage Systems Improvement Project, which will finance the rehabilitation and expansion of water and wastewater systems and enhance the capacity to provide and maintain water and sewage services.
“We are concerned about the lack of clean water supply and the deterioration in the quality of water resources in the Gaza Strip, one of the most densely populated areas on earth,” said World Bank country director Mariam Sherman
“The new project is very important to Gaza citizens. Not only will it increase the sustainability of water and sewage networks, but it will also allow the utility to better serve the needs of their customers.”
Iyad Rammal, an infrastructure specialist for the World Bank, said it had a longstanding focus on water and sanitation in its program for the occupied territories and hoped to address critical deterioration of the water system.
“As part of the Bank strategy for the West Bank and Gaza to support local institutions, the project will provide technical and operational assistance so that water and sewage services may be more efficiently managed,” he said.
The project will fund the construction of water tanks to collect and blend water from different sources in order improve the quality and efficiency of Gaza water supply and wastewater services.
A strategic partnership with the Islamic Development Bank will also allow a contribution of $11.14 million in parallel financing to the project, the statement said.
In a statement, the World Bank said the board of directors approved the plan for the Gaza Water Supply and Sewage Systems Improvement Project, which will finance the rehabilitation and expansion of water and wastewater systems and enhance the capacity to provide and maintain water and sewage services.
“We are concerned about the lack of clean water supply and the deterioration in the quality of water resources in the Gaza Strip, one of the most densely populated areas on earth,” said World Bank country director Mariam Sherman
“The new project is very important to Gaza citizens. Not only will it increase the sustainability of water and sewage networks, but it will also allow the utility to better serve the needs of their customers.”
Iyad Rammal, an infrastructure specialist for the World Bank, said it had a longstanding focus on water and sanitation in its program for the occupied territories and hoped to address critical deterioration of the water system.
“As part of the Bank strategy for the West Bank and Gaza to support local institutions, the project will provide technical and operational assistance so that water and sewage services may be more efficiently managed,” he said.
The project will fund the construction of water tanks to collect and blend water from different sources in order improve the quality and efficiency of Gaza water supply and wastewater services.
A strategic partnership with the Islamic Development Bank will also allow a contribution of $11.14 million in parallel financing to the project, the statement said.
5 nov 2012
The Freedom Bus's New Initiative "The Ride for Water Justice"
Thirsting for Justice Campaign said in a press release that during November 2012, the Ride for Water Justice! is taking place in communities impacted by Israel's illegal appropriations of Palestinian water resources.
The Ride includes guided walks, Playback Theatre performances, and community discussions about water apartheid and the broader struggle for freedom and justice in occupied Palestine. Audience members share autobiographical accounts and watch as a team of actors and musicians instantly transform these accounts into improvised theatre pieces. Playback Theatre provides opportunity for education, advocacy and community building.
The Ride started on Friday, November 2, in the village of Faquaa (in the Jenin district), one of many Palestinian communities impacted by Israel's illegal appropriations of Palestinian water resources.
In the next Fridays, Palestinian and international activists, students, journalists, artists and the wider public are invited to join any or all of the Ride for Water Justice events:
November 9th: Attuwani, South Hebron Hills
November 16th: Al Hadidiya, Jordan Valley
November 23rd: Gaza via Video Conference
This four time event is organized by the Freedom Bus and EWASH's West Bank local partner Juzoor.
The Freedom Bus is an initiative of The Freedom Theatre that uses interactive theatre and cultural activism to bear witness, raise awareness and build alliances throughout occupied Palestine and beyond.
Juzoor for Health and Social Development is a Palestinian non-governmental organization based in Jerusalem working at the national level, dedicated to improving the health and well-being of Palestinian families and promoting health as a basic human right.
The Emergency Water, Sanitation and Hygiene group (EWASH) is a coalition of almost 30 organisations working in the water and sanitation sector in the occupied Palestinian territory.
The Freedom Theatre: http://www.thefreedomtheatre.org/
Thirsting for Justice Campaign: http://www.thirstingforjustice.org/new
Juzoor: http://www.juzoor.org/portal
For further information about the event, visit
https://www.facebook.com/events/429492253776932/?ref=ts&fref=ts
The Ride includes guided walks, Playback Theatre performances, and community discussions about water apartheid and the broader struggle for freedom and justice in occupied Palestine. Audience members share autobiographical accounts and watch as a team of actors and musicians instantly transform these accounts into improvised theatre pieces. Playback Theatre provides opportunity for education, advocacy and community building.
The Ride started on Friday, November 2, in the village of Faquaa (in the Jenin district), one of many Palestinian communities impacted by Israel's illegal appropriations of Palestinian water resources.
In the next Fridays, Palestinian and international activists, students, journalists, artists and the wider public are invited to join any or all of the Ride for Water Justice events:
November 9th: Attuwani, South Hebron Hills
November 16th: Al Hadidiya, Jordan Valley
November 23rd: Gaza via Video Conference
This four time event is organized by the Freedom Bus and EWASH's West Bank local partner Juzoor.
The Freedom Bus is an initiative of The Freedom Theatre that uses interactive theatre and cultural activism to bear witness, raise awareness and build alliances throughout occupied Palestine and beyond.
Juzoor for Health and Social Development is a Palestinian non-governmental organization based in Jerusalem working at the national level, dedicated to improving the health and well-being of Palestinian families and promoting health as a basic human right.
The Emergency Water, Sanitation and Hygiene group (EWASH) is a coalition of almost 30 organisations working in the water and sanitation sector in the occupied Palestinian territory.
The Freedom Theatre: http://www.thefreedomtheatre.org/
Thirsting for Justice Campaign: http://www.thirstingforjustice.org/new
Juzoor: http://www.juzoor.org/portal
For further information about the event, visit
https://www.facebook.com/events/429492253776932/?ref=ts&fref=ts
2 nov 2012
IOF demolishes water well, arrests its owner east of Yatta
Israeli bulldozers demolished in the late hours of Tuesday water well in the region of Tawani east of Yatta, south of Hebron, and arrested its owner before assaulting him and severely beat his daughter.
Fadel Raba Amour, 39, told the PIC's reporter that an Israeli military force accompanied by bulldozers, raided at dawn on Tuesday the house of his brother Said Amour, who lives in a cave and pergola built on his land, and started demolishing the well which is used by the family to drink.
IOF assaulted his brother Said and his daughter Mary, 16, before arresting and taking him to an unknown destination, knowing that this is the second time the occupation forces demolished the well.
The occupation forces had raided the family's home on Monday, and demolished the well and threatened Said to be arrested if he rebuilt the well after demolition, Fadel explained, adding that the family of his detained brother includes nine members, using this well for drinking, domestic and agricultural purposes , wondering: "How should we bring water, especially that the region is isolated and suffers from water shortage?".
The Amour family confirmed their steadfastness in the face of occupation and its harassment policies against them and stressing that they will not leave their land no matter what the occupation can do.
Fadel Raba Amour, 39, told the PIC's reporter that an Israeli military force accompanied by bulldozers, raided at dawn on Tuesday the house of his brother Said Amour, who lives in a cave and pergola built on his land, and started demolishing the well which is used by the family to drink.
IOF assaulted his brother Said and his daughter Mary, 16, before arresting and taking him to an unknown destination, knowing that this is the second time the occupation forces demolished the well.
The occupation forces had raided the family's home on Monday, and demolished the well and threatened Said to be arrested if he rebuilt the well after demolition, Fadel explained, adding that the family of his detained brother includes nine members, using this well for drinking, domestic and agricultural purposes , wondering: "How should we bring water, especially that the region is isolated and suffers from water shortage?".
The Amour family confirmed their steadfastness in the face of occupation and its harassment policies against them and stressing that they will not leave their land no matter what the occupation can do.
25 oct 2012
IOF demolish water well, installations
Israeli occupation forces (IOF) demolished a water well and agricultural installations in Edhna village west of Al-Khalil on Wednesday.
Media sources said that the soldiers escorted bulldozers into Wadi Risha, west of the village, and destroyed a water well that was still under construction.
The sources quoted owner of the well Abdulrahman Tamiza as saying that agricultural installations were also ruined in the incident. He added that the demolition took place without prior notice.
Media sources said that the soldiers escorted bulldozers into Wadi Risha, west of the village, and destroyed a water well that was still under construction.
The sources quoted owner of the well Abdulrahman Tamiza as saying that agricultural installations were also ruined in the incident. He added that the demolition took place without prior notice.
24 oct 2012
Local official: Israel destroys 5 water wells in Jenin
Israeli forces destroyed five water wells in a Jenin village on Wednesday, claiming the structures were unlicensed, a local official said.
Muhammad Fahmi Maree, head of a local agricultural association, told Ma'an that an Israeli bulldozer, accompanied by military vehicles, destroyed the wells in Kafr Dan village.
Israeli authorities did not give the villagers any prior notification about the demolition, Maree said, adding that Israeli forces also destroyed a water pump.
Jenin governor, Talal Dweikat, told a Ma'an reporter that by destroying water wells Israeli authorities are targeting the Palestinian economy.
He called on human rights groups to help end Israeli aggression against Palestinian farmers.
Muhammad Fahmi Maree, head of a local agricultural association, told Ma'an that an Israeli bulldozer, accompanied by military vehicles, destroyed the wells in Kafr Dan village.
Israeli authorities did not give the villagers any prior notification about the demolition, Maree said, adding that Israeli forces also destroyed a water pump.
Jenin governor, Talal Dweikat, told a Ma'an reporter that by destroying water wells Israeli authorities are targeting the Palestinian economy.
He called on human rights groups to help end Israeli aggression against Palestinian farmers.
23 oct 2012
Two pipes for two peoples: The politics of water in the West Bank
In a new series, Haaretz explores the inequitable distribution of drinking water in the West Bank, where supply for the Palestinian falls far short of that of their settler neighbors as well as the standard set out by the WHO.
The IDF's Civil Administration is preventing the Palestinian Authority from laying a water pipe that would alleviate the acute water shortage for more than 600,000 Palestinians in the West Bank.
The reason given for preventing the pipe's construction is that a section of less than two kilometers of it, laid on the margins of Route 50, would disrupt Jewish passenger traffic on the road.
The annual water amount provided to the district is about 20 million cubic meters - some 90 liters per capita per day. A considerable part of the water is lost on the way due to leaks and faulty connections.
The district needs an additional 13 million cubic meters a year for domestic use, apart from farming. From May to October the water to the Palestinians in the area is severely rationed. Some neighborhoods have water for a few hours once a week, others twice a month or less.
Banal functions such as house cleaning and laundry all depend on the water supply. Every day some 400 tankers transfer water from central depots to hospitals, factories, schools and other public facilities in the region.
About half the water amount to the Hebron district comes from springs and wells. The PA buys the other half from the Israeli water company Mekorot. Some 10,000 cubic meters a day - more than a third of the amount bought from Mekorot - are funneled from the Dir Sha'ar (Etzion junction ) pumping depot in an 11 kilometer pipe.
About half the water is lost on the way, Mekorot's monthly invoices show. The Palestinians pay the amount registered at the depot, minus the water the pipe provides the Carmei Zur settlement (about 100 cubic meters a day ). The water meters in the Palestinian neighborhoods show that the amount actually supplied to the Palestinians is much smaller.
The PA has been planning to replace the pipe since 2008, with the financing of the United states Agency for International Development.
The pipe, built by Israel in 1972, loses 45-50 percent of the water flowing in it due to deterioration, illegal connections, bad construction and faulty installation, the American construction company MWH wrote in its project description.
Much of the water flowing in the pipe, which passes under residential and farming areas, is stolen, especially for farming. The water quality is unsafe, the company wrote.
The Palestinian water authority and MWH planned a new route alongside the road, to prevent hooking up to the pipe illegally. A new, wider pipe would reduce leaks and ensure the water's quality, they said. Mekorot agreed to increase the water amount to the Hebron district by 5,000 cubic meters a day.
The project was approved by the joint Israeli-Palestinian water committee in August 2010, as required by the Oslo agreement.
The Civil Administration had to approve the route, located in Area C. Finally it was agreed to lay nine kilometers of the pipe alongside an existing farm route, leaving 1.9 kilometers of pipe along Route 60. "This is necessary to avoid destroying two houses and fatally damaging vineyards," an engineer said.
But the Civil Administration refused "because the construction would disrupt the Jewish drivers' traffic," the Palestinian engineer said.
"When they do maintenance work on other roads in the West Bank, don't they disrupt the traffic?" he asked.
Like all Hebron neighborhoods, Jabar, located in Area H2 (in Israeli jurisdiction ) has water only once every few weeks. Some of the residents' front doors and windows have been sealed and the alleys in the neighborhood are blocked. Only Israeli vehicles to and from the Jewish homes in ancient Hebron and the Cave of the Patriarchs are allowed to travel there. Water tankers to the Palestinian houses are not allowed and the residents use water holes.
On August 26, an Israeli bulldozer accompanied by soldiers began digging among the houses in the neighborhood. After several protests, the residents were told by a Civil Administration official that the water pipe serving the settlers, whose water is not rationed, is being replaced by an elevated one.
The Palestinians fear the construction in the narrow streets will damage the ancient houses, dating back to the Mamluk era. In some places, parts of the new pipe have been attached to the Palestinian houses.
The Coordinator of Activities in the Territories said "the decision to replace the underground pipe with an elevated one is pending a High Court of Justice ruling. Replacing the pipe, which serves the Jewish settlement in Hebron, stems from water theft by the Palestinians. It is planned to be mostly elevated, but in every place it passes past houses' openings, it will be buried underground."
As for the water pipe near Route 60, "the Civil Adminisration approved most of the route but in one section it would harm the traffic. It cannot be built on the road shoulders because there are houses adjacent to the road. Alternative plans have not been received yet."
The IDF's Civil Administration is preventing the Palestinian Authority from laying a water pipe that would alleviate the acute water shortage for more than 600,000 Palestinians in the West Bank.
The reason given for preventing the pipe's construction is that a section of less than two kilometers of it, laid on the margins of Route 50, would disrupt Jewish passenger traffic on the road.
The annual water amount provided to the district is about 20 million cubic meters - some 90 liters per capita per day. A considerable part of the water is lost on the way due to leaks and faulty connections.
The district needs an additional 13 million cubic meters a year for domestic use, apart from farming. From May to October the water to the Palestinians in the area is severely rationed. Some neighborhoods have water for a few hours once a week, others twice a month or less.
Banal functions such as house cleaning and laundry all depend on the water supply. Every day some 400 tankers transfer water from central depots to hospitals, factories, schools and other public facilities in the region.
About half the water amount to the Hebron district comes from springs and wells. The PA buys the other half from the Israeli water company Mekorot. Some 10,000 cubic meters a day - more than a third of the amount bought from Mekorot - are funneled from the Dir Sha'ar (Etzion junction ) pumping depot in an 11 kilometer pipe.
About half the water is lost on the way, Mekorot's monthly invoices show. The Palestinians pay the amount registered at the depot, minus the water the pipe provides the Carmei Zur settlement (about 100 cubic meters a day ). The water meters in the Palestinian neighborhoods show that the amount actually supplied to the Palestinians is much smaller.
The PA has been planning to replace the pipe since 2008, with the financing of the United states Agency for International Development.
The pipe, built by Israel in 1972, loses 45-50 percent of the water flowing in it due to deterioration, illegal connections, bad construction and faulty installation, the American construction company MWH wrote in its project description.
Much of the water flowing in the pipe, which passes under residential and farming areas, is stolen, especially for farming. The water quality is unsafe, the company wrote.
The Palestinian water authority and MWH planned a new route alongside the road, to prevent hooking up to the pipe illegally. A new, wider pipe would reduce leaks and ensure the water's quality, they said. Mekorot agreed to increase the water amount to the Hebron district by 5,000 cubic meters a day.
The project was approved by the joint Israeli-Palestinian water committee in August 2010, as required by the Oslo agreement.
The Civil Administration had to approve the route, located in Area C. Finally it was agreed to lay nine kilometers of the pipe alongside an existing farm route, leaving 1.9 kilometers of pipe along Route 60. "This is necessary to avoid destroying two houses and fatally damaging vineyards," an engineer said.
But the Civil Administration refused "because the construction would disrupt the Jewish drivers' traffic," the Palestinian engineer said.
"When they do maintenance work on other roads in the West Bank, don't they disrupt the traffic?" he asked.
Like all Hebron neighborhoods, Jabar, located in Area H2 (in Israeli jurisdiction ) has water only once every few weeks. Some of the residents' front doors and windows have been sealed and the alleys in the neighborhood are blocked. Only Israeli vehicles to and from the Jewish homes in ancient Hebron and the Cave of the Patriarchs are allowed to travel there. Water tankers to the Palestinian houses are not allowed and the residents use water holes.
On August 26, an Israeli bulldozer accompanied by soldiers began digging among the houses in the neighborhood. After several protests, the residents were told by a Civil Administration official that the water pipe serving the settlers, whose water is not rationed, is being replaced by an elevated one.
The Palestinians fear the construction in the narrow streets will damage the ancient houses, dating back to the Mamluk era. In some places, parts of the new pipe have been attached to the Palestinian houses.
The Coordinator of Activities in the Territories said "the decision to replace the underground pipe with an elevated one is pending a High Court of Justice ruling. Replacing the pipe, which serves the Jewish settlement in Hebron, stems from water theft by the Palestinians. It is planned to be mostly elevated, but in every place it passes past houses' openings, it will be buried underground."
As for the water pipe near Route 60, "the Civil Adminisration approved most of the route but in one section it would harm the traffic. It cannot be built on the road shoulders because there are houses adjacent to the road. Alternative plans have not been received yet."
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Palestine Is Drying Up Before Our Eyes: Thirsting for Justice Under Water Apartheid
by Danny Muller
The water crisis in Palestine is 100% human-made, not a climate change catastrophe, not an issue of deforestation or drought. Don’t let the location fool you; as Ziyad Lunat from the Thirsting For Justice campaign pointed out, “Palestine and Israel get the same amount of rainfall as England. “ We say Palestine, mind you, not the West Bank and/or Gaza and/or the Occupied Territories. When we say Palestine, we mean all of it. The Palestine that is Gaza, the West Bank, the 64+ year flood of refugees in Jordan and Syria and Turkey and |
Chicago, the largest flood of refugees in modern history that span across the globe.
This water catastrophe — this other type of nakba — is definitively the result of Israel’s apartheid policies that are being conducted continuously, evident in the waterborne disease spreading throughout Palestinian refugee camps that are perhaps not an accident, an inconvenient oversight. Perhaps they are part of the continuing collateral damage of a so-called unsolvable crisis that in person, feels much more like the combination of a big lie and a large land grab. And as in other places, behind every land grab is a water grab.
Israeli policies and practices limit Palestinians’ access to the water they are entitled to under international law. Israel controls all sources of freshwater in the West Bank. In Gaza, 90 to 95 percent of the coastal aquifer, on which Gaza inhabitants are dependent for water, is contaminated due to over extraction and sewage contamination, making it unfit for human consumption. For most Palestinians, this ongoing and catastrophic water crisis is what they face daily, when they wash clothing, need a glass of water or try to water their crops.
Thirsting for Justice
During my most recent trip to Palestine while traveling with Barbara Lubin, Executive Director of the Middle East Children’s Alliance ( MECA), I was directly asked by one of MECA’s partnersto take part in the Thirsting for Justice Summer Challenge and only consume 6.3 gallons of water for one 24-hour period in solidarity with Palestinians. In the moment, I promised to participate and now I ask you to consider joining this campaign as well.
In Palestine, MECA was working to further our partnership with UNRWA to sustain and support MECA’s ongoing Maia project, which provides clean drinking water for children throughout kindergartens and UN schools in Gaza. As a natural extension of MECA’s humanitarian efforts, they are a member of the Emergency Water Sanitation and Hygiene group (EWASH), a coalition of 30 leading humanitarian organizations that launched this Thirsting for Justice Campaign. These groups have realized that demand for clean water will only increase unless there is some component where they do not just respond to the overwhelming need for clean water, but they advocate for a change in Israel’s water policy, which in my view amounts to liquid apartheid.
Taking the Challenge
I am not going to lie to you for a moment. This challenge is an impossible and completely symbolic task. How does one in the places we live respond to such a challenge? I, for one, procrastinated and delayed, as such is my privilege, since this is a symbolic nothingness, a gesture, a shoulder shrug. Solidarity? Perhaps. But solidarity means nothing when the 6.3 gallons I consumed during my allotted and chosen 24 hours were highly purified, compared to the water in Gaza, where I know from experience that if you take a hot shower the salt in the water burns your skin, that friends invite you to brush your teeth with their own bottled water so that your teeth won’t begin to erode for use of tap water. Water in Palestine is often so heavily salinated or in short supply that blue baby syndrome, liver afflictions, and kidney problems are all too commonly spoken on the lips of mothers when talking about their children.
Yet still I delayed. A 6.3 gallon challenge? Are you kidding me? I flush the toilet twice in the same day and I fail. If I do a load of laundry, or turn on the dishwasher, I fail. One shower, failure. I am American, therefore entitled to unlimited resources, am I not? Isn’t the American way of life not up for negotiation?
I finally acquiesced and undertook the Thirsting For Justice Challenge. Yesterday, instead of showering, I swam in the ocean. I pissed outdoors — I never flushed. I did not use dishes, except for one glass. I attempted the challenge and in the process spent countless gallons of oil and even more kilowatts of electricity, especially if you are reading this, all to communicate to you the importance of the Thirsting for Justice campaign, all to attempt to wash off the guilt and the default complicity we share in this occupation, all to complete a promise.
Taking part in the Thirsting for Justice Summer Challenge did make me think more about what it means to consume. Consume. Consume. The American mantra. We consume and destroy, and we do not question policies like the ongoing occupation and division of Palestine that we fund every day with US tax dollars. All of this, of course, is completely absent from debates, from dialogue, from the ongoing election cycle that makes one nauseous enough it makes it difficult to swallow. Even this symbolic feeling of being deprived of water, if just for one day, gives one pause to think about things such as this.
This symbolic challenge is a challenge nonetheless, one I invite you to consider, to embrace, to make you pause, despite all the noise, and join in the walk with the peoples of Palestine. The more who join the walk will be haunted as am I by Martin Luther King’s words: “ In the End, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.”
What now?
When I left Palestine weeks ago and returned home, (as is my privilege, I have freedom to travel, I am not Palestinian) sometimes things seemed more silent than ever. Sometimes I thought about how much harder it is to speak when you are thirsty. Sometimes I wished there was an easy way to be be heard by you, Israel. Because you are choking Palestine. There literally is no Jordan River anymore. You dam(n) the water from the underground aquifers that provide water to Palestinians, you poison their wells, you have built walls to encompass the high ground, you redirect the streams to fill swimming pools of settlers born of other lands with other privileges, many of whom are surprisingly well armed. With US weapons no less.
6.3 gallons. Per person. Per diem. I grab at the easy words in easy reach, carpe diem, to louden the call to join this Thirsting for Justice campaign today, but I cringe now at this phrase. Being in Palestine makes you realize seizure means something different when you are on the receiving end of of being seized.
Lessons learned?
What is 6.3 gallons? It is Israeli water torture. It is part of the occupation. It is part of maintaining the stalemate, the status quo, the divide and conquer, the non-solution is a solution. In the meantime, in the never ending interim, if you are Palestinian, just keep your water consumption under 6.3 gallons a day or there will be hell to pay.
I now know more deeply that expecting one to live on 6.3 gallons of water in a day is an insult. It’s collective punishment. It’s fucking horrible. An allotment of 6.3 gallons of water a day makes you want to flee.
This is not about me or you joining the Thirsting for Justice Summer campaign. This is about Israel using allotment of water resources as one of the many weapons in their arsenal to maintain their ongoing occupation. This is about making Palestine unlivable. This is about creating a different kind of Exodus. This is about a new Trail of Tears. But this is a controlled amount of tears, and it is controlled at the water spigots, controlled at the borders, controlled in the halls in Washington and the Knesset and in the lack of news you hear about the unwillingness of many Palestinians to be truly part of their two paltry puppets, the PA and Hamas.
This other Trail of Tears is drier and longer and older than you think. Listen. Do you hear the footsteps? More feet down the trail every day, with our silence. More tears. All happening in real time, all with the blind allegiance and support of the USA.
By no means, do I know what it is to walk any Trail of Tears. All I can think is to try to strive to accompany in some small way those who have been forced on this path by no choice of their own. That many of those walking are children. That there are choices before all of us, that we can, in fact, ourselves thirst for justice in our own way and shrink the gap between those on the receiving end, those whose lives know only war and occupation and those of us who, by default, by waking up in America, are the ones who are partly responsible.
Danny Muller has worked with the MiddleEastChildren’sAlliance since they were jointly breaking the economic sanctions against Iraq with Voices in the Wilderness in the 1990’s. He is raising money to build a water treatment unit at the UNRWA Rehabilitation Centre for Visually Impaired (RCVI) where almost 500 students come for training and treatment but have no access to clean water, and asks that you consider makingadonationandsupportPalestine.
This water catastrophe — this other type of nakba — is definitively the result of Israel’s apartheid policies that are being conducted continuously, evident in the waterborne disease spreading throughout Palestinian refugee camps that are perhaps not an accident, an inconvenient oversight. Perhaps they are part of the continuing collateral damage of a so-called unsolvable crisis that in person, feels much more like the combination of a big lie and a large land grab. And as in other places, behind every land grab is a water grab.
Israeli policies and practices limit Palestinians’ access to the water they are entitled to under international law. Israel controls all sources of freshwater in the West Bank. In Gaza, 90 to 95 percent of the coastal aquifer, on which Gaza inhabitants are dependent for water, is contaminated due to over extraction and sewage contamination, making it unfit for human consumption. For most Palestinians, this ongoing and catastrophic water crisis is what they face daily, when they wash clothing, need a glass of water or try to water their crops.
Thirsting for Justice
During my most recent trip to Palestine while traveling with Barbara Lubin, Executive Director of the Middle East Children’s Alliance ( MECA), I was directly asked by one of MECA’s partnersto take part in the Thirsting for Justice Summer Challenge and only consume 6.3 gallons of water for one 24-hour period in solidarity with Palestinians. In the moment, I promised to participate and now I ask you to consider joining this campaign as well.
In Palestine, MECA was working to further our partnership with UNRWA to sustain and support MECA’s ongoing Maia project, which provides clean drinking water for children throughout kindergartens and UN schools in Gaza. As a natural extension of MECA’s humanitarian efforts, they are a member of the Emergency Water Sanitation and Hygiene group (EWASH), a coalition of 30 leading humanitarian organizations that launched this Thirsting for Justice Campaign. These groups have realized that demand for clean water will only increase unless there is some component where they do not just respond to the overwhelming need for clean water, but they advocate for a change in Israel’s water policy, which in my view amounts to liquid apartheid.
Taking the Challenge
I am not going to lie to you for a moment. This challenge is an impossible and completely symbolic task. How does one in the places we live respond to such a challenge? I, for one, procrastinated and delayed, as such is my privilege, since this is a symbolic nothingness, a gesture, a shoulder shrug. Solidarity? Perhaps. But solidarity means nothing when the 6.3 gallons I consumed during my allotted and chosen 24 hours were highly purified, compared to the water in Gaza, where I know from experience that if you take a hot shower the salt in the water burns your skin, that friends invite you to brush your teeth with their own bottled water so that your teeth won’t begin to erode for use of tap water. Water in Palestine is often so heavily salinated or in short supply that blue baby syndrome, liver afflictions, and kidney problems are all too commonly spoken on the lips of mothers when talking about their children.
Yet still I delayed. A 6.3 gallon challenge? Are you kidding me? I flush the toilet twice in the same day and I fail. If I do a load of laundry, or turn on the dishwasher, I fail. One shower, failure. I am American, therefore entitled to unlimited resources, am I not? Isn’t the American way of life not up for negotiation?
I finally acquiesced and undertook the Thirsting For Justice Challenge. Yesterday, instead of showering, I swam in the ocean. I pissed outdoors — I never flushed. I did not use dishes, except for one glass. I attempted the challenge and in the process spent countless gallons of oil and even more kilowatts of electricity, especially if you are reading this, all to communicate to you the importance of the Thirsting for Justice campaign, all to attempt to wash off the guilt and the default complicity we share in this occupation, all to complete a promise.
Taking part in the Thirsting for Justice Summer Challenge did make me think more about what it means to consume. Consume. Consume. The American mantra. We consume and destroy, and we do not question policies like the ongoing occupation and division of Palestine that we fund every day with US tax dollars. All of this, of course, is completely absent from debates, from dialogue, from the ongoing election cycle that makes one nauseous enough it makes it difficult to swallow. Even this symbolic feeling of being deprived of water, if just for one day, gives one pause to think about things such as this.
This symbolic challenge is a challenge nonetheless, one I invite you to consider, to embrace, to make you pause, despite all the noise, and join in the walk with the peoples of Palestine. The more who join the walk will be haunted as am I by Martin Luther King’s words: “ In the End, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.”
What now?
When I left Palestine weeks ago and returned home, (as is my privilege, I have freedom to travel, I am not Palestinian) sometimes things seemed more silent than ever. Sometimes I thought about how much harder it is to speak when you are thirsty. Sometimes I wished there was an easy way to be be heard by you, Israel. Because you are choking Palestine. There literally is no Jordan River anymore. You dam(n) the water from the underground aquifers that provide water to Palestinians, you poison their wells, you have built walls to encompass the high ground, you redirect the streams to fill swimming pools of settlers born of other lands with other privileges, many of whom are surprisingly well armed. With US weapons no less.
6.3 gallons. Per person. Per diem. I grab at the easy words in easy reach, carpe diem, to louden the call to join this Thirsting for Justice campaign today, but I cringe now at this phrase. Being in Palestine makes you realize seizure means something different when you are on the receiving end of of being seized.
Lessons learned?
What is 6.3 gallons? It is Israeli water torture. It is part of the occupation. It is part of maintaining the stalemate, the status quo, the divide and conquer, the non-solution is a solution. In the meantime, in the never ending interim, if you are Palestinian, just keep your water consumption under 6.3 gallons a day or there will be hell to pay.
I now know more deeply that expecting one to live on 6.3 gallons of water in a day is an insult. It’s collective punishment. It’s fucking horrible. An allotment of 6.3 gallons of water a day makes you want to flee.
This is not about me or you joining the Thirsting for Justice Summer campaign. This is about Israel using allotment of water resources as one of the many weapons in their arsenal to maintain their ongoing occupation. This is about making Palestine unlivable. This is about creating a different kind of Exodus. This is about a new Trail of Tears. But this is a controlled amount of tears, and it is controlled at the water spigots, controlled at the borders, controlled in the halls in Washington and the Knesset and in the lack of news you hear about the unwillingness of many Palestinians to be truly part of their two paltry puppets, the PA and Hamas.
This other Trail of Tears is drier and longer and older than you think. Listen. Do you hear the footsteps? More feet down the trail every day, with our silence. More tears. All happening in real time, all with the blind allegiance and support of the USA.
By no means, do I know what it is to walk any Trail of Tears. All I can think is to try to strive to accompany in some small way those who have been forced on this path by no choice of their own. That many of those walking are children. That there are choices before all of us, that we can, in fact, ourselves thirst for justice in our own way and shrink the gap between those on the receiving end, those whose lives know only war and occupation and those of us who, by default, by waking up in America, are the ones who are partly responsible.
Danny Muller has worked with the MiddleEastChildren’sAlliance since they were jointly breaking the economic sanctions against Iraq with Voices in the Wilderness in the 1990’s. He is raising money to build a water treatment unit at the UNRWA Rehabilitation Centre for Visually Impaired (RCVI) where almost 500 students come for training and treatment but have no access to clean water, and asks that you consider makingadonationandsupportPalestine.
17 sept 2012
Water in Palestine: Not a Scarcity but a Distribution Problem
On Tuesday 18th September 2012 at 8 PM AICafé holds a discussion about "Water in Palestine: not a scarcity but a distribution problem" with Marta Fortunato, Advocacy campaigner at EWASH (Emergency Water Sanitation & Hygiene).
Even though there is enough water to go around in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, the discriminatory laws implemented on the ground by Israel mean that Palestinians are left with a trickle.
According to the report "Troubled Waters: Palestinians denied fair access to water" published by Amnesty International in 2009, Israel uses more than 80 per cent of the water from the Mountain Aquifer, the main source of underground water in Israel and the OPT, while restricting Palestinian access to a mere 20 per cent.
While average Palestinian daily water consumption barely reaches 70 litres a day per person, Israeli daily consumption is more than 300 litres per day. In some rural communities, like in the Jordan Valley, Palestinians survive on barely 20 litres per day and don't have access to the water that flows in the pipes leading to Israeli settlements which are illegal under international law.
EWASH stands for Emergency Water Sanitation and Hygiene and it is a coalition of almost 30 organizations working in the water and sanitation section in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.
This group was established in 2002 and its members include international NGOs like Oxfam, GVC and others, local NGOs like Ma'an Development and ARIJ, UN agencies like OCHA and UNICEF, and Palestinian Authoritiy counterparts like the Palestinian Water Authority (PWA) and the West Bank Water Department (WBWD).
Join for the event
The AIC is a joint Palestinian-Israeli activist organization engaged in dissemination of information, political advocacy and grassroots activism. The AICafè is a political and cultural café open on Tuesday and Saturday night from 7pm until 10pm. It is located in the Alternative Information Center in Beit Sahour, close to Suq Sha3ab (follow the sign to Jadal Center ). We have a small library with novels, political books and magazines. We also have a number of Films in DVD copies and the AIC publications which are aimed to critically analyze both the Palestinian and Israeli societies as well as the conflict itself.
Even though there is enough water to go around in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, the discriminatory laws implemented on the ground by Israel mean that Palestinians are left with a trickle.
According to the report "Troubled Waters: Palestinians denied fair access to water" published by Amnesty International in 2009, Israel uses more than 80 per cent of the water from the Mountain Aquifer, the main source of underground water in Israel and the OPT, while restricting Palestinian access to a mere 20 per cent.
While average Palestinian daily water consumption barely reaches 70 litres a day per person, Israeli daily consumption is more than 300 litres per day. In some rural communities, like in the Jordan Valley, Palestinians survive on barely 20 litres per day and don't have access to the water that flows in the pipes leading to Israeli settlements which are illegal under international law.
EWASH stands for Emergency Water Sanitation and Hygiene and it is a coalition of almost 30 organizations working in the water and sanitation section in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.
This group was established in 2002 and its members include international NGOs like Oxfam, GVC and others, local NGOs like Ma'an Development and ARIJ, UN agencies like OCHA and UNICEF, and Palestinian Authoritiy counterparts like the Palestinian Water Authority (PWA) and the West Bank Water Department (WBWD).
Join for the event
The AIC is a joint Palestinian-Israeli activist organization engaged in dissemination of information, political advocacy and grassroots activism. The AICafè is a political and cultural café open on Tuesday and Saturday night from 7pm until 10pm. It is located in the Alternative Information Center in Beit Sahour, close to Suq Sha3ab (follow the sign to Jadal Center ). We have a small library with novels, political books and magazines. We also have a number of Films in DVD copies and the AIC publications which are aimed to critically analyze both the Palestinian and Israeli societies as well as the conflict itself.
10 sept 2012
Israel 'blackmailing' Palestinian Water Authority
Israel's planned construction of the wall in the Cremisan Valley will destroy a water reservoir
Israel is using water agreements signed in the Oslo Accords to blackmail the Palestinian Water Authority and destroy the two-state solution, the head of the PWA said Monday.
Israel has reduced the Joint Water Committee, set up to implement the Oslo Agreement on water, to "a forum for blackmail," Shaddad Attili said in a statement.
Israel refuses to approve Palestinian projects to construct and rehabilitate water infrastructure in the West Bank unless the Palestinian Authority approves projects to benefit illegal Israeli settlements, Attili said.
"This is no different to asking us to approve our own occupation and colonization."
Attili added: "If Israel continues to treat the JWC as a mechanism through which to arm twist and blackmail Palestinians, then the JWC faces a very uncertain future. In essence, Israel will have killed the JWC."
By obstructing water projects in Area C, 60 percent of the West Bank, Israel undermines Palestinian efforts to build the infrastructure needed for a state, and forcibly displaces Palestinians by obstructing their access to water.
"In short, Israel’s policies in Area C seek to make permanent the status quo of territorial fragmentation, settlement expansion and resource exploitation that are all fundamental to its continued occupation," the water chief said.
Donor countries recognize settlements as a threat to the two-state solution, yet donor-funded water projects in the West Bank are only approved if the JWC approves projects supporting settlements.
"Israel has created a situation in which donor support for the Palestinian water sector is in danger of undermining donor support for the two-state solution. Donor countries need to intervene to change this situation, for the sake of Palestinian water rights and for the future of the two-state solution," Attili said.
In 2011, Israeli forces demolished 46 Palestinian rainwater-harvesting cisterns and 25 wells. Current data suggests this number will be surpassed in 2012, the Palestinian Water Authority says.
The PWA has submitted over 100 applications for water projects that are still waiting approval by Israel, some of which date back to 1999.
The Oslo Accords were slated as a five-year interim agreement until the establishment of a Palestinian state, but remain in place nearly two decades on in the absence of a final agreement. The agreement maintained Israeli control over West Bank water resources and its levels of extraction from them.
Demonstrators protesting the rising cost of living in cities across the West Bank have demanded the cancellation of the Paris Protocol, the economic annex to the Oslo Accords which Palestinians say mostly benefited Israel.
Israel is using water agreements signed in the Oslo Accords to blackmail the Palestinian Water Authority and destroy the two-state solution, the head of the PWA said Monday.
Israel has reduced the Joint Water Committee, set up to implement the Oslo Agreement on water, to "a forum for blackmail," Shaddad Attili said in a statement.
Israel refuses to approve Palestinian projects to construct and rehabilitate water infrastructure in the West Bank unless the Palestinian Authority approves projects to benefit illegal Israeli settlements, Attili said.
"This is no different to asking us to approve our own occupation and colonization."
Attili added: "If Israel continues to treat the JWC as a mechanism through which to arm twist and blackmail Palestinians, then the JWC faces a very uncertain future. In essence, Israel will have killed the JWC."
By obstructing water projects in Area C, 60 percent of the West Bank, Israel undermines Palestinian efforts to build the infrastructure needed for a state, and forcibly displaces Palestinians by obstructing their access to water.
"In short, Israel’s policies in Area C seek to make permanent the status quo of territorial fragmentation, settlement expansion and resource exploitation that are all fundamental to its continued occupation," the water chief said.
Donor countries recognize settlements as a threat to the two-state solution, yet donor-funded water projects in the West Bank are only approved if the JWC approves projects supporting settlements.
"Israel has created a situation in which donor support for the Palestinian water sector is in danger of undermining donor support for the two-state solution. Donor countries need to intervene to change this situation, for the sake of Palestinian water rights and for the future of the two-state solution," Attili said.
In 2011, Israeli forces demolished 46 Palestinian rainwater-harvesting cisterns and 25 wells. Current data suggests this number will be surpassed in 2012, the Palestinian Water Authority says.
The PWA has submitted over 100 applications for water projects that are still waiting approval by Israel, some of which date back to 1999.
The Oslo Accords were slated as a five-year interim agreement until the establishment of a Palestinian state, but remain in place nearly two decades on in the absence of a final agreement. The agreement maintained Israeli control over West Bank water resources and its levels of extraction from them.
Demonstrators protesting the rising cost of living in cities across the West Bank have demanded the cancellation of the Paris Protocol, the economic annex to the Oslo Accords which Palestinians say mostly benefited Israel.
IOF raze two water tanks, agricultural land south of Nablus
The Israeli occupation forces (IOF) demolished Monday morning two water containers and a tract of agricultural land in Jurish town south of Nablus city.
Director of settlement affairs in northern West Bank Ghassan Daglas said three Israeli military bulldozers destroyed without prior notice two large water tanks belonging to villagers Ali Farhan and Mohamed Al-Raja.
Daglas noted that the water containers were built recently at a high cost, but today they were destroyed before even their owners used them.
He added that the bulldozers also destroyed about 15 dunums of recently cultivated land and razed irrigation networks belonging to the same owners.
Director of settlement affairs in northern West Bank Ghassan Daglas said three Israeli military bulldozers destroyed without prior notice two large water tanks belonging to villagers Ali Farhan and Mohamed Al-Raja.
Daglas noted that the water containers were built recently at a high cost, but today they were destroyed before even their owners used them.
He added that the bulldozers also destroyed about 15 dunums of recently cultivated land and razed irrigation networks belonging to the same owners.
Over 90 students poisoned in Jenin
Scores of students in the secondary school of Sanur town, near Jenin in the northern West Bank, were transferred to hospital for treatment after being poisoned, Palestinian medical sources reported.
Dr. Saleh Zakarna, the Director of Jenin's Health, pointed out that the number of cases affected by poison in Sanur's secondary school has reached, since last Thursday, ninety-one cases.
He added: "The follow up, with the Ministry of Health, Shahid Khalil Suleiman government Hospital and the Department of Education in Qabatiya, shows that there are none of the cases is serious."
Dr. Zakarna revealed that samples were taken from the water tanks, which supply the school and school's canteen, and were transferred to the city of Ramallah for analysis, pointing out that the preliminary results will be announced during the coming 48 hours.
Dr. Saleh Zakarna, the Director of Jenin's Health, pointed out that the number of cases affected by poison in Sanur's secondary school has reached, since last Thursday, ninety-one cases.
He added: "The follow up, with the Ministry of Health, Shahid Khalil Suleiman government Hospital and the Department of Education in Qabatiya, shows that there are none of the cases is serious."
Dr. Zakarna revealed that samples were taken from the water tanks, which supply the school and school's canteen, and were transferred to the city of Ramallah for analysis, pointing out that the preliminary results will be announced during the coming 48 hours.
